A recent article in Ad Age cites a Forrester Study tracking how much time consumers spend on media from 2004 to 2009 and discovered that the Internet usage growth is now flat after a remarkable growth rate of 117%
The article goes on with a discussion with a representative from Forrester who believes that people don’t need to spend as much time online anymore as they have broadband connections, know more about where they want to go and utilize Google to help them when they don’t have a specific site in mind.
The final takeaway of the article isn’t too newsworthy as it says that the Internet is a part of everyone’s life and we shouldn’t put our Internet strategy in a silo different from our offline strategy.
Unfortunately, I think many brands still are slow to incorporate the Internet into their traditional media strategy. How else can we explain the information on a printed circular for a dealer not appearing online in html format on the brand site? Even though the printed circular was built on the brands marketing communication site for the dealer.
My dad started our advertising agency in 1955 and used to joke that he thought this TV thing is for real and will be around for awhile. Well now I can say that I think this Internet thing is for real and will be around for awhile, too.
Now let’s act like it.